


Under Darkness

by sophinisba



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: 100-1000 Words, Drabble Sequence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-18
Updated: 2009-12-18
Packaged: 2017-10-05 20:20:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophinisba/pseuds/sophinisba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the prompts "Morgana, mud" and "Gwen, starlight".  Vague spoilers for late season 2.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Under Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompts "Morgana, mud" and "Gwen, starlight". Vague spoilers for late season 2.

"Again," says Arthur, and armour clatters as the knights shift on their feet, tired (it's past midnight, the moon high over the courtyard, and they've been up since before dawn), impatient (he things they're getting worse with every charge rather than better), but they don't grumble and they don't refuse. They know as well as he does that they need this. They're used to training in full sunlight (and have been dying by day even so), but Merlin has assured Arthur the attack on Camelot will come at night. (How he knows he won't say, but no amount of teasing will make him back down. Arthur knows to believe him when it comes to the important things.) "Come on, let's see what you're made of."

*

"Stop," says Morgana, and though her companions slow and eventually stop and face her, it's clear they're not following her orders.

"What is it," says Alvarr, "mud on your skirts? Tired of walking on rough ground?"

There is (cold mud soaked through to her skin and squelching with every uneven step), and she is (bone-weary as she's never been, not after a day of sparring with Arthur or a month when dreams kept her from sleeping through the night), but that's not why she needs to talk.

"Uther's the enemy. We're agreed on that, right? Once he's gone, Arthur can become king, and there will be justice again. Without him there will only be chaos."

Alvarr smiles. "And what if chaos is what we want?"

*

"It's not fair," says Merlin, holding his torch aloft in the swallowing dark. The flame nearly goes out in the wind of the Dragon's wings.

He's indifferent to Merlin's protests, doesn't even bother to ask what he means, though Merlin wants to explain that Morgana should be on their side in this, and for that matter they ought to tell Gaius and Gwen and even Arthur.

The Dragon settles down again and answers, "Indeed, it is not fair that I've been imprisoned underneath this castle for twenty years, or that you've tried to forget your vow. Release me, Merlin."

"Promise me first that Morgana won't come to any harm.

"Unlike you, young warlock, I am not in the habit of making promises I cannot keep."

*

Silent, Gwen stands on the roof, looking over the battlements to the courtyard where the knights are charging again (useless, hopeless, tripping over their own feet and missing the prince's orders in their exhaustion). She looks past the castle walls to the sleeping town, where she once had family and now has only a room and memories. And beyond that the woods, where darkness and the cover of trees keep the movements of the enemy hidden from her sight. Gwen doesn't know how Uther's enemy became hers, and she doesn't know how she lost her best friend.

Her feet are standing on solid stone, but the castle is throbbing with secrets, hollow with loss. All under her, under the frail half light of the stars.


End file.
